More than one in 10 teachers are bullied by pupils and colleagues through text messages, emails and social networking sites, new research shows.

Schools are increasingly expected to teach pupils about new technologies - but the findings suggest students are using their skills to hound staff.

A former music teacher in the south-west of England said: "Nasty text messages full of abuse may be little things in themselves but, after time, they meant I couldn't face going into school."

Of those who had suffered cyberbullying personally, 63% had received unwelcome emails, 26% had offensive messages posted about them on social networking sites such as Facebook or Rate My Teacher, and 28% were sent unwelcome text messages, according to the survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Teacher Support Network.

A London-based modern languages teacher said: "My inbox was at one point filled with the most hateful and upsetting emails from an anonymous address. I knew there were pictures taken of me in class circulating via a networking site but I was powerless."

The survey of 539 school and college staff comes ahead of new government guidelines on tackling it. Most of the reported cyberbullying - 44% - was done by pupils, but nearly a third of staff said a manager or colleague was behind it. The survey also highlighted the effect cyberbullying has on its victims, with 39% saying their confidence fell, 25% saying it made them a less effective teacher and 6% saying they were forced to take sick leave because of resulting illness or stress. Nearly two thirds (62%) were not aware of any cyberbullying policy at their school.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families describes cyberbullying as "the use of information and communications technology, particularly mobile phones and the internet, deliberately to upset someone else".